Archinect - News

Rowan Moore reviews new 'Difficult Sites' exhibition on challenging architectural parameters

2024-10-22T12:02:00-04:00

This small but rewarding show is a celebration of architectural skill and ingenuity, spurred on by whatever complexities might arise. Its exhibits include models and drawings supplied by contemporary practices, and taken (albeit, regrettably, only as reproductions) from RIBA’s collections. Some projects seek to soar above the mucky stuff. Others embrace the difficulties, making them into an occasion to create something that would never otherwise have come into being.

Speaking to the more than 20 building projects selected for the show, Moore added: "The qualities of thought on display are as relevant as ever, as the physical demands of climate emergency, and the challenges of providing new housing on a restricted supply of land, bring a whole new level of difficulty to bear. In these circumstances, design is not a luxury but a necessity. It’s beyond the scope of the RIBA exhibition to propose how these vaster challenges can be met, but it demonstrates creative intelligence that can be applied to more than the occasional delightful home."

If you're feeling up to the challenge, 'Difficult Sites: Architecture Against the Odds', which opened on October 11th, will remain on view until March 25th, 2025 at the RIBA Architecture Gallery in London.

Michael Kimmelman goes in search of Paul Rudolph’s true legacy at the Met

2024-10-17T18:17:00-04:00

He’s now the subject of a modest but riveting retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, organized by Abraham Thomas, called 'Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph,' whose first order of business is obviously to answer a question people outside architecture circles will ask, namely: Who was he?

The exhibition, the Met’s first major show on modern architecture in almost fifty years, opened on September 30th and includes over 80 artifacts from the Kentucky-born Rudolph’s five-decade career. The last day to see this is March 16th, 2025.

Kimmelman says it offers an interesting recount of how the "shining light of the Kennedy era" morphed into league with the originator of his failed Lower Manhattan Expressway plan, Robert Moses, bemoaning "his grand plans and recklessness, his truculence and tragic arc."

10 architectural installations & pavilions that stood out this week

2024-10-05T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Installations.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ A table elevated in the landscape in Logroño, Spain by Álvaro González Serrano and J-AF Architecture; Photo: Josema Cutillas

↑ Six Sections in Zhangzhou, China by Studio Link-Arc

↑ Colour Palace in London, United Kingdom by Yinka Ilori and Pricegore; Main Contractor/Design Partner: Raskl; Photo: Adam Scott

↑ Qianhai Floating City in Shenzhen, China by People's Architecture Office; Co-Designer: Dongxiying Studio, CCDI; Photo: Zhang Chao, People’s Architecture Office

↑ Blooms in San Jose, CA by Hou de Sousa

↑ RGB by Mike McKay; Photo: Alan Rideout Photography

↑ Gulao Tea Alcove in Heshan, China by Huang Zelin · Aether ...

Liam Young's 'Views of Planet City' will highlight SCI-Arc's exhibition programming as part of Pacific Standard Time this fall

2024-06-18T12:32:00-04:00

This fall at SCI-Arc, the school’s graduate Fiction and Entertainment program director Liam Young will present Views of Planet City as part of the regional PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition organized by The Getty Museum.

Previously: 'AI Is a Dangerous Distraction From the Pressing Issues Defining Our Generation'; A Conversation with Liam Young

Young is known for his fictional alternative proposal of the same name that posits a future in which humanity has been resettled to one singular megacity benefiting the natural systems that keep the blue planet healthy while reversing centuries of colonialization through a converse process called ‘rewilding.’

Image: Damjan Jovanovic/courtesy of SCI-Arc

"As an imaginary world, Planet City is continually being inhabited, explored, and fleshed out across multiple mediums and platforms. It was originally conceived of as a film, a mix of live-action costumes and actors and CGI backgrounds but has now evolved as a VR experience, a book, and a ...

Jenny Holzer restages 1989 projection piece at the Guggenheim in New York City

2024-05-21T12:42:00-04:00

This month at New York's Guggenheim Museum, artist Jenny Holzer is having her landmark 1989 light projection restaged in the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building’s rotunda. The installation celebrates her innovative text-based art alongside pieces from the early 70s to today that were included in the museum's new Light Line exhibition.

Installation view, Jenny Holzer: Light Line, May 17 – September 29, 2024, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2024 Jenny Holzer, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Ariel Ione Williams © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

"Developed in close collaboration with the artist and her studio, the new sign was the subject of an ambitious research project. Guggenheim conservators reverse-engineered the 1989 LED hardware and computer program, which helped inform the new manifestation. This investigation documents future variability and technology upgrades, and contributes to scholarship and methodologies for the preservation of ...

SCI-Arc's immersive 2024 Spring Show exhibition to feature a colorful assortment of new student work

2024-04-18T12:58:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School

SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School, is hosting its annual Spring Show exhibition later this month that will feature the work of undergraduate and graduate students from all school programs. The show takes place on its LA Arts District campus, beginning with the opening reception at 6 PM on Saturday, April 27th.

The annual exhibition is meant to highlight students' work and the diversity of SCI-Arc’s course offerings via four immersive monochromatic rooms, each with different textures covering its surfaces. The curator of this year’s Spring Show, postgraduate Fiction and Entertainment program faculty Alexey Marfin, tells Archinect: "The spaces operate on two scales: The bold statement seen from afar, but also the fine material detail seen on closer inspection."

"The exhibition will be centered around an experience...

Gordon Kipping's mass timber installation 'Maison de Cartes' is now open at SCI-Arc

2024-04-17T13:02:00-04:00

SCI-Arc opened a new exhibition last Friday, curated by Class of 1995 M.Arch graduate Gordon Kipping, that documents the development of mass timber within contemporary architecture.

Inspired by Le Corbusier’s 1914–15 Dom-Ino House prototype, Maison de Cartes presents examples both in the form of physical models and via a special augmented reality (AR) application to deliver a narrative about timber's ability and potential to meet the challenge of climate change in different typological contexts worldwide.

Image credit Joshua White Photography, courtesy of SCI-Arc

The exhibition culminates years of research into engineering and sustainable construction methods and Kipping's belief that timber architecture can play a role in alleviating the impinging housing crisis in Los Angeles and abroad.

Image credit Joshua White Photography, courtesy of SCI-Arc

SCI-Arc says: "It's a testament to his conviction that architects should pay more attention to such societal issues, exploring tangible w...

Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House opens at The Glass House with the help of Cooper Union architecture students

2024-04-17T06:00:00-04:00

Archinect has received first photos of Shigeru Ban Architects’ new collaborative installation project with students from The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

A product of this semester’s Building Technology course, Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House honors the 75th anniversary of one of America’s foremost examples of modernism with a special nine-month run that began this week, April 15th, and will run until December 15th.

Students from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union cut and sort components for the Paper Log House’s top connector in the school workshop. Video still by Hudson Lines

Students slot preassembled sections of paper tube walls into crenelated base panels along the perimeter of the floor. Video still by Hudson Lines

Working together with a team from the Pritzker Prize winner’s New York office, a group of 39 students engaged in a two-day assembly process that created a 13.5 by 13.5-...

Influential 1970s women architects exhibition revisited in new Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation series

2024-04-15T14:03:00-04:00

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) has launched a new audio documentary on an influential 1970s exhibition on women in architecture. Part of the BWAF series ‘New Angle: Voice,’ the episode will profile the Brooklyn Museum’s 1977 exhibition ‘Women in American Architecture.’

Curated by architect Susana Torre and sponsored by the Architectural League of New York, the exhibition received significant coverage across national and architectural media, including a review by Ada Louise Huxtable in The New York Times. The new audio episode, ‘Laying the Groundwork: Women in American Architecture, Spring 1977,’ debuts the first program of New Angle: Voice’s third and conclusive season, with later episodes to continue exploring the influences of women in architecture.

Image courtesy: Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation

Last year, we reported on the series’ profiling of Huxtable, the New York Times’ first-ever architectural critic, and Amaza Lee Meredith, a Black woman born in 18...

MoMA exhibition on 20th-century Latin American design is a 'gem' says Michael Kimmelman

2024-04-05T13:31:00-04:00

The show is a gem. It focuses on domestic design from six countries (Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela), produced between 1940 and 1980. Latin America had entered a period of transformation, industrial expansion and creativity. Across the region, design was becoming institutionalized as a profession, opening up new avenues, especially for women.

Critic Michael Kimmelman has heaped praise on the 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980' MoMA exhibition in a new piece for The New York Times. As we reported in December of last year, the show looks at the growth of modernism through an industrial and entrepreneurial lens, using a selection of examples from well-known and revered architects and designers such as Joaquim Tenreiro, Lina Bo Bardi, and Oscar Niemeyer.

"The role that women and immigrants played in shaping professional design and developing a national design vocabulary in Latin America will be emphasized, including the work of designers such as Clara Porset in Mexico, Cornelis Zitman in Venezuela, and Susi Aczel in Argentina," MoMA said about their exhibition at the time.

Gordon Kipping to present Maison de Cartes in the SCI-Arc Gallery

2024-04-02T14:59:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by SCI-Arc, an Archinect Partner School

This month, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is set to unveil Maison de Cartes, an exhibition by Gordon Kipping that delves into the innovative use of timber in contemporary architecture. Inspired by the principles of Maison Dom-ino by Le Corbusier, Kipping reimagines construction for the modern era, with a particular emphasis on combatting climate change.

Kipping champions the use of mass timber as a sustainable alternative to the carbon-heavy materials of steel and concrete, which are major contributors to global CO2 emissions. "Building in steel and concrete...is a huge contributor to CO2 emissions," Kipping highlights, underlining the environmental benefits of using wood, a material that not only captures carbon dioxide but is also renewable.

A unique aspect of the Maison de Cartes exhibition is its blend of the physical and digital realms through an augmented reality (AR) application....

Frank Gehry's 'Ruminations' comes to Madison Avenue

2024-02-23T18:36:00-05:00

The Gagosian Gallery’s Madison Avenue location has recently opened an exhibition of Frank Gehry artworks titled Ruminations.

On view until April 6th, the gallery will be showing recent works Gehry’s team says are in dialog with the architect’s engagements with fluid aquatic animal forms that date to an inspirational early-80s commission with the Formica Corporation.

Frank Gehry, Ruminations, 2024, installation view. Image: © Frank O. Gehry. Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy Gagosian

Notably, the show features the East Coast debut of Gehry’s "Crocodile Lamp" sculpture besides selected works on paper and other elaborations on the animal theme.

Frank Gehry, Untitled (Black Crocodile New York), 2023. Metal wire, Colorcore formica, and silicone 13 3/8 x 102 3/8 x 51 1/4 inches (34 x 260 x 130 cm). Image: © Frank O. Gehry/Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy Gagosian

Ruminations follows the 2021 exhibition Spinning Tales, which was staged by the Gagosian in Los Angeles. This is the chance fo...

Oana Stănescu named curator for the Beta 2024 Timișoara Architecture Biennial

2024-01-11T13:00:00-05:00

Romanian architect Oana Stănescu has been named as the curator for the Beta 2024 Timișoara Architecture Biennial. In a career spanning two decades, the architect, designer, writer, and educator has offered a “profound reading of contemporary architecture and design,” according to the biennial organizers.

“I am deeply honored, excited and nervous, thrilled and moved all at the same time,” Stănescu said about the appointment. “We live our lives within the confines of architecture, which makes it the perfect excuse for urgent socio-cultural conversations, especially in Romania’s unique position, with its simultaneous proximity and distance to the West.”

Having completed her architectural studies at FAUT (The Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism from Timișoara), Stănescu ultimately established her studio in New York and Berlin, with notable projects including retail designs for Virgil Abloh’s Off White stores, large-scale installations at MoMA and Coachella, and a co-founding of the col...

Gingerbread City is back with sweet architectural designs in London and New York

2023-12-11T13:42:00-05:00

London's Museum of Architecture has revealed the 2023 slate of participating design firms in its annual Gingerbread City exhibition, along with an expanded American component taking place in New York City through the end of the holiday season.

For the dual city festival, participants were charged with interpreting the role water plays in urban development. Their designs comprised four zones (Urban Floodplain, Canal City, Frozen Landscape, and Underwater + Floating City) in both locations, with a fifth Desert Landscape area presenting a “sweet feast for the eyes” in New York.

BubbleBurst Bonbon Museum: Spherical Symphony of Sweet Delights by Atelier Ten © Luke O’Donovan

Bakewell Bridge by Allies and Morrison © Luke O’Donovan

Highlights from the more than 100 firms that contributed to the London exhibition include a BubbleBurst Bonbon Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects, Jammy Jubilee by Foster + Partners, Atelier Ten’s The Gingerbread Factory, the Bakewell Bridge by Allies and Morrison, a...

In BRUTAL DC, Brooks + Scarpa proposes adaptive reuse of Marcel Breuer's landmark 1968 design

2023-10-25T13:49:00-04:00

Brooks + Scarpa has proposed an adaptive reuse renovation of the Marcel Breuer-designed Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in Washington, D.C. in an effort to address the chronic issue of empty office space plaguing the city’s economic growth and downtown core.

The proposal is included in a new exhibition at the Southern Utah Museum of Art that examines Brutalism’s past and future potential through seven key structures and Metro station designs. The exhibition includes Diller Scofidio + Renfro's scrapped 'Bubble' reimagining of the Hirshhorn Museum and other schemes from Gensler and students from the UNLV School of Architecture.

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

The inclusion of the 55-year-old Weaver Building is significant as it is the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wants to position itself in line with industry pushes to build a “just and equitable future for all citizens.”

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

After the p...

Tadao Ando opens ‘Space of Light’ pavilion in South Korea

2023-08-28T17:21:00-04:00

Tadao Ando has shared photos of his studio's new Space of Light meditative pavilion at the Museum SAN in Wonju, South Korea.

The second of two pavilions designed for the ten-year-old rural arts institution opened earlier this month. It is the third structure on the Ando-designed campus in Gangwon Province and coincides with the museum's exhibition of his youthful early designs — a tourist draw that's recently been extended for another three months owing to the self-taught Pritzker winner's tremendous popularity.

Image courtesy Museum SAN

The object of this design, Ando says, is to emulsify nature into the user’s experience, incorporating light into the otherwise murky auspices of the concrete-walled pavilion’s interior space uninterrupted in a way that recalls the philosophies embodied in his breakout 1989 Church of Light in Osaka, which features a nearly identical narrow cross opening in its façade.

Image courtesy Museum SAN

Offering a demarcation from its domed 2019 predecessor, wh...

Exhibit Columbus Announces 2023 Opening Weekend Events

2023-08-03T14:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Exhibit Columbus.

The fourth Exhibit Columbus exhibition, Public by Design, opens on Saturday, August 26, with 13 new works of art and architecture designed to invigorate, entertain, and challenge while expanding the legacy of one of America’s most celebrated cities.

Image courtesy of Exhibit Columbus.

Landmark Columbus Foundation announces the Opening Weekend of the 2023 Exhibit Columbus Exhibition, Public by Design, with the Opening Celebration on Friday, August 25, and a day of free, public events on Saturday, August 26. The Exhibit Columbus community (including the Curatorial Team, Landmark Columbus Foundation Staff and Board, Participants, volunteers, and supporters) has been working together for over a year to create what will be a ground-breaking exhibition that showcases how art and architecture can help build a sense of belonging while revitalizing and reimagining historic downtowns as equitable, beautiful, and joyful places.

Image by Hadley F...

Jacques Herzog previews the Royal Academy exhibition with Christopher Hawthorne

2023-07-11T13:42:00-04:00

Actually, the reason we curate the shows ourselves is not because we want to control how people think, but quite the opposite. I don’t want to be too defensive. I’m not a moralist. If I would to try to control everything, I would have chosen the wrong job.

Back in May, Hawthorne met with Jacques Herzog at the opening of the Venice Biennale to discuss the upcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London as well as several prevailing industry trends that have impacted his firm’s size and projects in the United States and abroad. He says that, among other project types, “neglected” hospital design offers architects the most potential. The 73-year-old Herzog then offers some insights into the firm’s reluctance to work in Russia after last year, the limits of adaptive reuse, curation, and the perception of his counterpart's role as a firm leader vis-à-vis his own.

Previously on Archinect: Herzog & de Meuron’s first London exhibition in 20 years to be hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts

“Pierre has always organized the business, going back to when we were starting out. But it’s not fair to say that Pierre is the business guy and I’m the artist,” he tells the former LA Times critic. “Ideally, we look into projects together and we di...

Tadao Ando on 'Youth' and optimism for museum design

2023-06-28T08:00:00-04:00

I believe that a museum is the light of hope [...] A place where people can obtain the ‘nutrients for the soul’ necessary for living a rich and fulfilling life.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Ando says: “I always struggle with where to draw the line between nature and artificiality as I proceed with design,” telling the interviewer Edwin Heathcote (who says his 2013 Museum SAN in South Korea illustrates “the crisis in contemporary architecture”) that his goal for the project was to create “one big garden” before remarking on the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, the necessity of adaptive reuse, personal health challenges, and legacy.

The final leg of the 81-year-old icon’s touring retrospective Tadao Ando: Youth exhibition culminates at Museum SAN and will remain on view until July 30th of this year.

The Royal Academy's 2023 Architecture Room celebrates 'the art of making and the hand-made'

2023-06-14T17:39:00-04:00

The Peter Barber-curated Royal Academy of Arts summer Architecture Room has opened in London, featuring an exhibition focusing on the role of craftsmanship in architecture.

The room plays into the 2023 Summer Exhibition's greater theme put forth by academician and curator David Remfry, who says his focus was inspired by the famous adage to “Only Connect” as taken from novelist E.M. Forster’s 1910 masterpiece Howard’s End.

A selection of studio models, drawings, maquettes, sketches, and other objects comprise the Architecture Room exhibition, which is on view until August 20th in the RA’s Burlington House main gallery.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pete, bloke, Aarchitect (@peterbarber12)

The 2022 Soane Medalist Barber previously stated his intentions of “focusing on the art of making and the hand-made within the design process, which can often be overlooked in the digital age." The works selected, therefore, demonstrate “[an] experimental, provocati...

Urban housing by women-led firms featured at the 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-06-08T11:01:00-04:00

As part of the 2023 Venice Biennale, an exhibition on the future of housing has opened feating the work of several women-led practices. Titled 'Reconceptualizing Urban Housing,' and organized by the European Cultural Centre, the exhibition centers on “unique perspectives on collective housing, primarily in or near urban areas.”

Reconceptualing Urban Housing Architects

Featured practices in the exhibition are Adengo Architecture (Uganda), Alison Brooks Architects (UK), Dubbeldam Architecture + Design (Canada), Eleena Jamil Architect (Malaysia), Fernanda Canales Arquitectura (Mexico), Manuelle Gautrand Architecture (France), Mecanoo (The Netherlands), Meyer-Grohbruegge (Germany), and Studio Gang (USA).

Mecanoo - Villa Industria Silos. Photo credit: Mecanoo architecten

“The global housing crisis has created an urgent need for housing worldwide, especially in urban centers where 80% of the world’s population is housed,” the organizers explained. “In the race to build more homes faster, ma...

China exits Venice Biennale over Alison Killing's Xinjiang detention camp investigation

2023-05-26T15:36:00-04:00

Opening week for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale wasn't short of excitement, reflection, criticism, and social commentary from the architecture community and the general public. With that said, another piece of controversial news was recently reported by the Italian news and analysis website Decode39 on the Chinese Embassy's decision to exit one of the largest international design and culture exhibitions.

According to Decode39, China withdrew from the event due to an installation titled Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps. Created by architect and urban designer Alison Killing of Killing Architects, the project aimed to explore and investigate the "network of detention camps built by the Chinese government in Xinjiang for the mass detention of Muslims."

Previously on Archinect: Architect Alison Killing has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her Chinese internment camp investigations

In 2021, Killing was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in the International Reporting cat...

U.S. Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale analyzes the human relationship with plastic

2023-05-18T18:11:00-04:00

The United States Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale has been completed ahead of the event’s May 20th public opening. Organized by the Cleveland-based alternative art organization SPACES, and titled Everlasting Plastics, the exhibition seeks to explore “one of the most ubiquitous materials in our world: plastic.”

Externalities by Ang Li. Photo credit: ReportArch / Andrea Ferro Photography

Investigating how plastic has permeated modern life, the exhibition reframes attitudes and approaches toward addressing the overabundance of plastic waste in waterways, landfills, and streets. Acknowledging the global dependence on the material, the pavilion seeks to make a case for a “profound reconsideration for how we coexist with plastics and its possibilities as an agent for change.”

PROOFING: Resistant and Ready by Xavi L. Aguirre. Photo credit: ReportArch / Andrea Ferro Photography

“In representing the United States at La Biennale, we wanted to draw a connection between an indu...

Upcoming academic events and exhibitions from Archinect Partner Schools in NYC, LA, New Orleans, and virtual

2023-05-17T14:12:00-04:00

As architecture schools everywhere prepare for end-of-year reviews, final exhibitions, and commencement ceremonies, below is a selection of upcoming events from a few of our Archinect Partner Schools.

Pratt Institute School of Architecture hosts...

Image courtesy of A Rising Tide.

Celebrating Asian & Pacific Islander Design
Date: Thursday, May 18, 6–8 pm
Details: "Join A Rising Tide, and AAPI Design Alliance for an event during NYCxDESIGN to celebrate Asian and Pacific Islanders in design. Hosted by the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, this event, timed to coincide with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, will feature short presentations by emerging API design firms and a networking hour for interior designers, architects, makers, and landscape architects. Reception will feature API-founded drink and snack companies." Pratt SOA is one of the event's sponsors. Read more here.

New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design presents...

Image cour...

NEOM goes to Venice to promote its 'zero gravity urbanism' concept

2023-05-17T12:11:00-04:00

A new exhibition titled Zero Gravity Urbanism—Principles for a New Livability will explore the conceptual underpinnings behind Saudi Arabia’s contentious NEOM megadevelopment parallel with the start of the 2023 Venice Biennale on May 20th.

Featuring contributions from Morphosis, Peter Cook, UNStudio, Studio Fuksas, Oyler Wu, and Adjaye Associates, the exhibition presents what organizers say are the $500 billion endeavor’s "seven key principles [...] defined and brought to life through the proposals of architects and urban thinkers, who are envisioning the foundations of a new livability in NEOM."

Other than the plan’s 110-mile main THE LINE segment, details on NEOM’s Oxagon, Trojena, and Sindalah regional developments will also be presented.

Previously on Archinect: OMA, Peter Cook, Morphosis, Adjaye Associates among firms showcasing design proposals in NEOM's recent The Line Experience exhibition

A series of lectures and public presentations will supplement the exhibition. Peter Coo...

Norman Foster previews his Centre Pompidou retrospective for the New York Times

2023-05-11T11:47:00-04:00

I’ve responded to an invitation. Nobody could knock on the door of the Pompidou Center and say, “Hey, I had this idea.” This wasn’t my idea. I’m responding to an invitation, and I’m honored on behalf of so many people to accept it. I’m excited about the future. I think the future is more interesting than the past. I leave the past to other people.

The 1999 Pritzker Prize winner also delved into topics as far ranging as his yearslong dispute with environmental activists, representation of women in architecture, engagements in Saudi Arabia, NEOM, so-called "starchitects," and the world to come. The exhibition features some 130 major projects, covering areas like his love for cars, early collaboration with Buckminster Fuller, and more, all honed in on themes of "sustainability and anticipating the future."

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Curator Frédéric Migayrou breaks down Foster’s six-decade output into seven thematic sections: Nature and Urbanity; Skin and Bones; Vertical City; History and Tradition; Planning and Places; Networks and Mobility; and Future.

The exhibition, titled Norman Foster, is open now and will remain on view until August 7th.

France debuts 'Ball Theater' pavilion installation ahead of the 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-04-27T13:09:00-04:00

France’s pavilion to the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale will feature an immersive interchange of identity and emotion inspired by ballroom dances and human rituals of experience-based social cohesion.

French studio Muoto partnered with scenographers Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna for the design of Ball Theater, which they say ties into curator Lesley Lokko’s thematic look to the future where “architecture is no longer to represent or to be represented as an image.”

Image courtesy of Muoto, Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna

Their project for the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs takes the form of a semi-spherical intervention that’s configurable for different immersive experiences all based around Ball Theater’s usage as a forum for artistic performances and civic inquiry.

Image courtesy of Muoto, Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna

Special events will be held in its hollowed chamber space, taking...

Cooper Union's Vkhutemas exhibition to open April 25th, with an expanded study of historical and political context

2023-04-18T11:15:00-04:00

The Cooper Union’s controversial Vkhutemas: Laboratory of Modernism, 1920–1930 has set an opening date months after being postponed and then remounted following backlash over censorship claims and its appropriateness in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

April 25th is the new public opening for the exhibition, which will run through May 5th in the school’s Arthur J. Houghton Jr. Gallery.

The move was announced Monday by President Laura Sparks, who said: “The Cooper Union has always been a forum for courageous public discourse, a place where new ideas, as well as opposing viewpoints, are expressed and explored to advance a just and thriving world. Since the 19th century, the institution has served as a center of learning and civic engagement to address the critical challenges and opportunities of the day. There is value in examining the teachings of Vkhutemas, and it is critical that we expanded the study to probe and learn from the broader geopolitical circumstances surrounding th...

Tadao Ando’s tribute to Karl Lagerfeld will take over the Met’s Costume Institute this spring

2023-03-23T17:16:00-04:00

The three-decade professional relationship between Karl Lagerfeld and Pritzker winner Tadao Ando will be continued in a new exhibition designed by the architect for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Opening to coincide with the Lagerfeld-themed Met Gala during the first week of May, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty promises to be a treatise on Lagerfeld’s work organized around the duality between straight lines and the “Serpentine line” first theorized in William Hogarth’s 1753 essay The Analysis of Beauty.

The essay was supposedly an inspiration for the late fashion designer throughout his decorated career, the arch and milestones of which are covered in the introductory segment to the exhibition. This introduction will be followed by two galleries that hone in on themes derived from each type of line and are divided into nine ‘sublines’ included as examples of contradictory impulses throughout his friend’s long oeuvre.

Related on Archinect:...

Desert X 2023 features work that highlights the social and ecological consequences in our changing world

2023-03-18T10:00:00-04:00

The fourth edition of Desert X kicked off earlier this month in Southern California’s Coachella Valley with 12 site-specific installations that focus on ecology and the global social and economic consequences of climate change.

Artists were challenged by the “desert, its beauty, harshness, and ever-changing environment,” according to the event’s founder and President Susan Davis. Their responses included evocations of childhood memory, Native American customs, free trade, conspiracy theories, and popularized notions of the American West, among other inspirations.

Desert X 2023 installation view, Hylozoic/Desires, Namak Nazar, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of the artist and Desert X.

“Desert X 2023 can be seen as a collection of artistic interventions that make visible how our energy has a transference far beyond what we see just in front of us in our own localities,” co-curator Diana Campbell says. “From deserts to floodplains, finding, building and developing tools and tactics to...